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2011 Folk Fellowship winner to study Indigenous music

2011 Folk Fellowship winner to study Indigenous music

17 November 2010

Musician and researcher of Australian music, Toby Martin, has been named the 2011 National Folk Fellow.

The Folk Fellowship, a collaboration between the National Library of Australia and the National Folk Festival (www.folkfestival.asn.au) was awarded to Martin for his chosen project, The Darling River Country Troubadour Tradition, which explores a folk-country singing tradition by Indigenous performers in the Darling River region of western NSW.

Curator of Music at the National Library, Robyn Holmes, and Managing Director of the National Folk Festival, Sebastian Flynn, who were on the selection panel, said Martin secured the award from the strongest field of contenders so far in the eight-year history of the Fellowship.

‘The panel was impressed with Toby Martin’s combination of scholarly interest and performance practice in Australian country and folk music which set him apart from a number of other highly impressive applications,’ Ms Holmes said.

Mr Flynn said Martin’s project would provide an exciting Indigenous element to the National Folk Festival which runs from 21-25 April 2011. He said it would assist both the Library and the Festival in reintroducing historic Indigenous content held in the Library collections to western NSW communities and to the broader Australian community.

SPECIAL EVENT: Hear 2010 National Folk Fellow Christina Mimmochi talk about songs in the Library’s Oral History and Folklore Collection today, Wednesday 17 November, at 4 pm in the National Library Theatre.